Poorest show raises doubt on Pawar’s relevance

With only 10 seats, the NCP (SP)’s poor results put a question mark on the party’s survival as an entity independent of Ajit Pawar

Mumbai: Last week, Sharad Pawar flamboyantly challenged his opposition saying Sharad Pawar cha naad karaycha nahi. Loosely translated, it meant ‘don’t mess with me’. The gathered audience erupted in cheers. It was during a large public rally at Madha in Solapur. And if the response that Pawar’s rallies got was an indication of victory, the numbers should’ve been better. In other meetings, he urged the people to overthrow and defeat those who had walked away from his party, especially Chhagan Bhujbal and Dilip Walse-Patil. The voters didn’t respond though. Both politicians won. And so did Ajit Pawar who was being challenged by his own nephew, Yugendra in Baramati. A margin of more than 80,000 is no mean feat. It showed who the people chose.

While Ajit Pawar, who got the NCP party name and the clock symbol won 40 seats out of the 59 he contested, the NCP (SP) could manage to bag a mere 15 out of 86, a sharp difference in the strike rate. The electoral results have, in a way, legitimised Ajit’s leadership of the party. Soon after the results were out, Devendra Fadnavis commented that the people have recognised the Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and the results have legitimised Ajit Pawar’s NCP as the ‘real NCP’.

The real test is in constituencies where the two NCPs were in a face-off and Ajit Pawar’s party emerged with flying colours. In Indapur, the NCP defeated veteran politician Harshvardhan Patil; in Kagal, Hasan Mushrif won against NCP (SP)’s Samarjeet Ghatge and in Mumbai, Sana Malik defeated Fahad Ahmad.

The outcome of these much-watched polls puts a question mark on the future of the Sharad Pawar-led NCP. The Nationalist Congress Party has always been close to power since its inception in 1999. The only time it was away from the ruling benches was between 2014 and 2019. Sustaining a split and a loss will not be easy for the party with an ageing patriarch.

Pawar poured his energies into this election, zipping across the length and breadth of the state. It was evident to all that this would be the last election in which the senior politician would actively campaign and lead the party. At 84, Pawar is troubled by health concerns and a cracked party and family. His succession plan is now hanging in imbalance. With this election, Pawar wanted to groom a new leadership of the party with most second rung leaders having left him for Ajit. While Supriya Sule, as the party’s national working president and Jayant Patil, the state unit chief, led the party into these elections, what they have inherited is now a regional political party with only 15 members in the legislative assembly.

Most newcomers that they had bet on, have lost. Fahad Ahmad, who was being projected as the young Muslim face, lost to Nawab Malik’s daughter. Yugendra Pawar, who was fiercely supported by large sections of the Pawar family, lost by a huge margin. Despite a party spokesperson saying that young politicians prefer to be in the opposition because they can make a mark, it is hard for politicians to be away from power for too long. A party member expects a bigger exodus to Ajit Pawar. “Power is most attractive in politics. This result legitimised Ajit Pawar’s leadership and put a question mark on Supriya Sule’s ability to lead the party now. Five years is a long time to be on the wrong side of power,” he says.

The results show that the NCP (SP) has suffered the biggest setback, managing to get a little over a dozen seats after contesting 86 constituencies. Picking up the shards of a shattered party will be tough and piecing them together will be even more uphill.

Will Sule be able to pull it off? Party members aren’t sure. “Pawar is now a tired man; maybe the time for retirement has indeed come. Politicians who are hopeful of a future will not remain here. It will be a wise move for the family and the party to reunite. There’s no other way,” says a party

member.